High-value target

In United Statesmilitary terminology, a High-Value Target (HVT) is a target (a person or resource) that an enemy commander requires for completion of a mission. The term has been widely used in the media for Osama Bin Laden and high-ranking officers of Al-Qaeda who are considered essential to the completion of enemy operations.

^Seymour M. Hersh, The Gray Zone:How a secret Pentagon program came to Abu Ghraib, New Yorker, May 24, 2004 accessed at [2]

^Sections on HVT Engagement in The DIM MAK Response of Special Operations Forces to the World of 2025:"Zero Tolerance/Zero Error", A Research Paper Presented To Air Force 2025, August 1996 accessed at [3] and [4]

United States Department of Defense definitionHigh-Value Target (HVT) — A target the enemy commander requires for the successful completion of the mission. The loss of HVTs would be expected to seriously degrade important enemy functions throughout the friendly commander’s area of interest. See also high-payoff target; target. (JP 3-09)